Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, Austin Playhouse, September 6 - October 6, 2013

by Catherine Dribb

While the impossible dream of Austin Playhouse moving into Mueller Development may still be just that, they’ve finally released Man of La Mancha into the Austin art world. For two years it’s been slated as the opening production in their newly built theatre, but with no ground breaking yet, it seems Don Quixote will have to settle for Highland Mall instead.

Which seems appropriate really. For the man who battles windmills and sees the potential of the world instead of its hardships, would have walked into that all but abandoned mall, and raised his arms in agony. “To be or not to be?”

Rick Roemer, Jacob Trussell (photo: Christopher Loveless)

To be! Don Quixote would have undoubtedly decided. And with the final weekend approaching, the Playhouse has announced that this has been their highest earning musical in all their eleven years of existence.

And as the prisoners of the Inquisition turn their jail cell into an inn and then into a castle, so has Austin Playhouse turned an old Footlocker into an intimate live theatre space and that small stage into a daring dungeon housing victims of religious and political zealotry.

Man of La Mancha enters its final weekend tomorrow with Rick Roemer still giving a beautiful rendition of its protagonist, Miguel de Cervantes/Don Quixote. Roemer’s voice has never sounded so strong, and his Impossible Dream will bring you not to your feet, but to your knees with its tenderness. 

Despite some pitch issues in the cast, notable performances include that of chorus member Lara Wright, who doesn’t play the usual quirky, gregarious sidekick you’ve undoubtedly seen do at Zach Theatre and the Playhouse, but rather the roles of an understated kitchen wench and a seductive Gypsy dancer. In addition, Leslie R. Hethcox is delightful (as usual - did you see him in Little Shop this summer?!) with his barber cameo. And both sets of galloping horse legs (Hethcox and Stephen Mercantel) were indeed impressive.

The set is well crafted with a trap lowering dramatically into the dungeon, interrupting Miguel de Cervantes’ story and jarring the audience back to “reality” as well. We wonder, what world do we live in, and how do we choose to proceed? Is our story retold with hope and imagination as its greatest honors?

(photo: Christopher Loveless)

Only you can decide! So choose to indulge this weekend in Man of La Mancha at Austin Playhouse. It’s guaranteed to stir your soul and help you dream some of your own impossible dreams.

Tickets are available online at the AustinPlayhouse.com website or by calling the boxoffice at (512) 476-0084.

REEFER MADNESS, THE MUSICAL, Doctuh Mistuh Productions at Spider House Ballroom and Dougherty Arts Center, June 7 - 30, 2013

presents


REEFER MADNESS THE MUSICAL

June 7-30, 2013

Ticket Information:
$22 Adults & $15
 Students/Seniors at the Door$20 

Advance Sales through brownpapertickets.com (800) 838-3006 or click BPTkts logo (as of May 1)




Locations in Austin, Texas:
Spider House Ballroom, 2908 Fruth Street, Austin, Tx http://spiderhousecafe.com June 7-16, June 23 - 30
Dougherty Arts Center, 1110 Barton Springs Rd., Austin, Tx June 20 - 22



Performance Schedule

Friday, June 7 @ 8pm Spider House Ballroom
Saturday, June 8 @ 8pm Spider House Ballroom
Saturday, June 8 @ 12am (Midnight Show) Spider House Ballroom
Sunday, June 9 @ 6pm Spider House Ballroom
Sunday, June 16 @ 6pm Spider House Ballroom
Thursday, June 20 @ 8pm Dougherty Arts Center
Friday, June 21 @ 8pm Dougherty Arts Center
Saturday, June 22 @ 8pm Dougherty Arts Center Sunday, June 23 @ 6pm Spider House Ballroom
Friday, June 28 @ 8pm Spider House Ballroom
Friday, June 28 @ 12am (Midnight Show) Spider House Ballroom
Saturday, June 29 @ 8pm Spider House Ballroom
Saturday, June 29 @ 12am (Midnight Show) Spider House Ballroom
Sunday, June 30 @ 6pm Spider House Ballroom

Reefer Madness is Doctuh Mistuh's 4th production and promises to be the craziest one yet with two venues, an insanely talented cast...and it's about REEFER. We hope you will check it out. To reserve tickets, please click to go to our Purchase Tickets link on the Home Page.

Meet The REEFER MADNESS CAST

Jose Villareal (Lecturer)
Joey Banks (Jimmy)
Sarah Marie Curry (Mary Lane)
Libby Dees-Detling (Mae)
Nathan Brocket (Jack)
Kristi Brawner (Sally)
Chase Brewer (Ralph)
Paul Koudaris (Jesus)
David Ponton (Ensemble)
Brian Loyosa (Ensemble)
Stephen Mercantel (Ensemble)
Sarah Konkel (Ensemble)
Kimberly Wilson (Ensemble)
Kaitlyn Moise (Ensemble)
Lisa Wright (Ensemble)


Meet The Production Team
Michael McKelvey (Stage & Musical Director)
Joe Carpenter (Set Designer)
Glenda Barnes (Costume Designer)
Cameron Allen (Technical Director)
Sam Chesney (Lighting Designer)
Angelica Manez (Production Stage Manager)
Rebecca Robinson (Publicity)
Jennymarie Jemison (Graphics)

The Band
Kyle Sigrest (Keyboard & Conductor)
Trevor Detling (Drums)

Ryan Beavers (Guitar)

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Upcoming: Exit, Pursued by Bear by Laren Gunderson, Capital T at Hyde Park Theatre, August 16 - September 8

 

presents

(image: www.capitalt.org)

Directed by Mark Pickell

Costume Design by Cheryl Painter
August 16 – September 8
Thursday-Saturday at 8pm

Hyde Park Theatre 511 W 43rd St at Guadalupe (click for map)

Nan decides its finally time to leave her abusive husband Kyle and make a run for it but not until she’s tied him up, covered him in honey and invited the neighborhood bear in for a snack. Lauren Gunderson’s gut-busting, outrageous revenge comedy about dreams, healing, and the simple joy of tying a dickhead to the living room chair.

“If the Coen Brothers decided to set a feminist revenge tale in Atlanta and sprinkle it with Dixie Chicks pixie dust, it might look something like Exit, Pursued by a Bear, a raucous comedy of friendship, domestic abuse and performance-as-catharsis.” - ArtsCritic Atlanta

“BEAR is RAW and HILIRIOUS” - American Theatre Magazine”

Cast:  Kyle – Joey Hood; Simon - Stephen Mercantel; Nan – Molly Karrasch; Sweetheart – TBA

Click to read about playwright Lauren Gunderson at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

Marvelous Things by Lindsey Greer Sikes, October 6 - 23

While watching Lindsey Greer Sikes' Marvelous Things at the Blue Theatre last week, I was struck by the feeling that rather than see this gentle fantasy, I'd really prefer to be in it. That's not unusual for those who haunt the dusty glitter of Austin stages; we've had a connection to theatre art at some time in the past so immediate and powerful that we've become performance junkies.

Rachel Wiese in the principal role of "Girl" and the rest of the cast had the delicate, concentrated gazes of make believe. Characters are unnamed and emblematic; the story is an abstraction into a coloring-book version of childhood's surrender to adolescence. The Girl has an abashed aspiring beau (Nathan Brockett) who accepts the limits she desires, physical and fantastical; she has a confidante, the "Other Girl" (Sara Harless), who's brash, gutsy and sensual; and there's the "Other Boy" (Stephen Mercantel), hormone-driven but well meaning, even so. The Old Folks her parents are cranky and broken down by life.

And then there are the Girl's imaginary friends. They perch in the upper reaches of the theatre on either wide of the playing area, back by the cellists who thrum, bow and accent the simple growing-up stories acted out at center. During the first act you might initially mistake the six 'mechanicals' for spectators particularly captivated by the action, but then they insinuate themselves with comments, contained gestures, grimaces and vocalized melodies. In the second half they emerge to surround the Girl, to assert their identities as Harvey, Faye Bell, Pinky, Betty, Adelaide and Goodie. They're pure Id, moving, quarreling amongst themselves and badgering the Girl as if they were five-year-olds.

Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Spirits to Enforce, Capital T Theatre at FronteraFest LF, January 19-30 and February 10 - 12

With 12 superheroes on stage, who ya gonna call? I picked over the suite of portraits at Capital T Theatre's website and I was seriously tempted by blonde Jenny Gravenstein as The Page with the come-hither eyes, particularly since Capital T is using her for one of its promo posters.

That would be a sexist indulgence in fantasy, though, so I settled on Austin newcomer Jay Fraley, who mans the central slot at the phone bank as Emory (secret identity: Ariel; yes, that Ariel, and a hint as to just why these impoverished superheroes, victorious so recently against Dr. Cannibal and his hoardes, are trying to raise donations so that they can put on a theatrical production of The Tempest).

Besides, Fraley has more than a passing resemblance to playwright Mickle Maher of Chicago's Theatre Oobleck. And when the super-rubber hits the road, Ariel's performance in the theatre before a crowd including Dr. Cannibal as chief theatre critic is a self-confessed disaster. Judging from the rest of this speedy, hectic, amusing play, that's just the sort of joke that Maher would play on himself.

Capital T's first-time director Gary Jaffe puts all superheroes on stage, all the time. They hardly move from their stations at the telethon table, except for LaTasha Stephens as The Bad Map, but the psychic energy sizzles. Jaffe has assembled a cast that is its own microcosm of valiant Austin actor-heroes, all of them in their 20's and 30's, most of them familiar and welcome to theatre junkies. They mirror pretty well the very demographic that Capital T has courted so successfully over the past couple of years: energetic folk who are smart, self-referential, creative and a touch arrogant.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, The Royal Pretenders at Sam Bass Community Theatre, August 19 - 29

. . . or, perhaps, The Road to Salvation as imagined by Bart Simpson.

The setting is a clichéd and unfunny take on the Day of Judgment, the plot's a mess, the characters are mostly caricatures, and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot was LONG -- close to three hours, including one intermission.

A brilliant and moving play was hiding inside this mess, one that came clear in the concluding scenes, after the grunge and cuteness had been burned away.

One had the impression that Stephen Adly Guirgis set out to write a stand-up comedy routine about the afterlife and just couldn't bear to discard any of the many characters that occurred to him along the way.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Royal Pretenders at the Sam Bass Community Theatre, August 19 - 29

. . or, perhaps, The Road to Salvation as imagined by Bart Simpson.


The setting is a clichéd and unfunny take on the Day of Judgment, the plot's a mess, the characters are mostly caricatures, and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot was LONG -- close to three hours, including one intermission.


A brilliant and moving play was hiding inside this mess, one that came clear in the concluding scenes, after the grunge and cuteness had been burned away.


One had the impression that Stephen Adly Guirgis set out to write a stand-up comedy routine about the afterlife and just couldn't bear to discard any of the many characters that occurred to him along the way.

Read more and view images at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . .

Body Awareness by Annie Baker , Hyde Park Theatre, April 8 - May 8

Annie Baker's Body Awareness is a well crafted, attractive little comedy with lots of heart. I hadn't really expected that, for the Hyde Park style is more often sardonic, grimly humorous or menacing. After all, director Ken Webster had been using a publicity shot of the cast in which they looked as if they'd been arrested by the Austin Police Department at a wild party.

Because of a trip out of town, my first chance to attend was a Thursday night. That's usually a quiet night at any theatre here, but Body Awareness boarded like an airliner, accommodating wait-listed passengers. Word had gotten around.

The theatre's promo video sets the characters vividly, so I knew that Stephen Mercantel as Jared was an in-your-face young man frustrated with the world, not in small part because everyone insists that he has Asperger's syndrome -- an inability to empathize or adapt to social conventions, so that he's always asking difficult questions and making observations that come across as unfeeling or cruel. The video captures some of Baker's cleverest turns exploiting that social inability, when Jared is trying to get information about sex and sexuality from adults who are acutely uncomfortable with his questions.

But Baker's play doesn get stuck there, as a TV situation comedy might get stuck exploiting a single character trait or situation. Instead, she succeeds in giving Jared an unlikely appeal and depth. He's enchanted with words and their etymologies; he is reading the Oxford English Dictionary line by line in hopes that someday, despite his lack of formal education, he might become a lexicographer. His unkind, probing questions about human relations and sex arise not from indifferent observation but because he has a deep need to be liked and appreciated.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Video Trailer: Body Awareness, Hyde Park Theatre, April 8 - May 8

Received directly from Hyde Park Theatre:

"Body Awareness" - a comedy by Annie Baker, starring Katherine Catmull, Stephen Mercantel, Emily Erington and Kenneth Wayne Bradley, directed by Ken Webster - at Hyde Park Theatre in Austin, TX.

The show runs April 8 - May 8, 2010 on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays (Thursdays are "pay-what-you-can").

Promotional trailer directed/shot/edited by Eric Graham for IC Pictures.

Upcoming: Body Awareness, Hyde Park Theatre, April 8 - May 8

UPDATE: Mention by San Francisco playwright Tim Bauer in his blog "Direct Address," April 22

UPDATE: Review by Ryan E. Johnson at examiner.com, April 13

UPDATE: Review by Jeane Claire van Ryzin on Statesman's Austin360 "Seeing Things" blog, April 12

UPDATE: Audio with Mike Lee on KUT's "Arts Eclectic," April 12

Received directly:

presents the Southwest premiere of

Body Awareness

a comedy by Annie Baker

directed by Ken Webster

April 8 - May 8, Thursdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $19 and $17 for students, seniors, and ACOT members on Fridays and Saturdays. Thursdays are pay-what-you-can. Hyde Park Theatre is located at 511 W. 43rd. Tickets can be charged online at www.hydeparktheatre.org, or by phone at 479-PLAY.

Featuring: Kenneth Wayne Bradley,Katherine Catmull,Emily Erington, Stephen Mercantel, Ken Webster

It's "Body Awareness Week" at a very-liberal-indeed liberal arts college in Shirley, Vermont, and tensions are coming to a head. Phyllis, one of the organizers, can't get people to stop calling it "Eating Disorders Week" ("if we could just correct that on all the posters, that would be great.") Her partner Joyce is trying to persuade her socially awkward son ("I'm actually 21. I'm old enough to have sex with an adult woman.") that he may have Asperger's Syndrome. Frank,the guest artist staying at their home, photographs nude women of all ages...all ages.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .